Vaee SolisAdversarial Light

Doom has been flourishing lately, as bands combine elements of black metal, sludge, death metal, desert rock, and all kinds of awesome subgenres to make some of the most unique and strong music to come out of the metal scene in a long while. The debut album from Portuguese doom metallers Vaee Solis, Adversarial Light, is another good example.

There's so much to like. The group's frontwoman, credited in the press release simply as Sophia, has a haunting, eerie vocal trill that sounds genderless and suspended in time and space. It wails and carries over the drones, doomy progressive chords and feedback screeches of a record that is distinctly doom, but with a black metal vibe, as the guitars and vocals echo in a chilling, frostbitten manner.

Each of the six songs on this release are absolute monoliths, and yet the songs all flow together in a drone-y, dreamy way. "Libra" is the album highlight, but the title track is also very strong and "Feral Isolation" possesses all the bleakness of its excellent title.

There aren't many downsides to the release; it's very grim and bleak, and perhaps a bit monotonous at times, but it adds to the atmosphere here. If you are a fan of the doomy, sludgy, grim and deranged, Adversarial Light is for you.
(Signal Rex)